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So, speaking about your chosen field, Save the Rhino International and the International Rhino Foundation think rhino horns won't solve the problem: https://ww

by jordigh 10y ago

So, speaking about your chosen field, Save the Rhino International and the International Rhino Foundation think rhino horns won't solve the problem: https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/synthetic_rhino_horn_will_it_save_the_rhino https://www.savetherhino.org/rhino_info/thorny_issues/synthe... What is your response to this? I really want to save rhinos too, and I'm not sure how to help. I've donated to both of those organisations, and I kind of want to figure out how convince Vietnam that rhino horns absolutely do not cure cancer. Why do you think synthetic horns will work instead?

matthewmarkus 10y ago
Not to besmirch SRT and IRF. They're good organizations that know a lot about rhinos and ecology. However, I have my doubts about their grasp of markets, psychology, history, and statistics among other things. For instance, from 2008 to 2014 they pushed the message that rhino horn was being used for medicinal purposes. As early as 2012, some intrepid investigators started to make the case that that wasn't what was driving the poaching crisis. There is now a growing consensus that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was a red herring all along [1, 2]. I believe they're wrong about biofabricated horn too. If you're interested, you can read my rebuttal to their objections here: https://sosv.com/why-pembient-is-confident-in-synthetic-rhino-horn/ https://sosv.com/why-pembient-is-confident-in-synthetic-rhin... TL;DR: We have Nobel Prize-winning theory (Akerlof, 2001) underlying our proposed intervention. [1] https://twitter.com/savetherhino/status/798885174520016896 https://twitter.com/savetherhino/status/798885174520016896 [2] https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-decorative-purposes-china/ https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-...

by jordigh 10y ago

matthewmarkus 10y ago

Not to besmirch SRT and IRF. They're good organizations that know a lot about rhinos and ecology. However, I have my doubts about their grasp of markets, psychology, history, and statistics among other things. For instance, from 2008 to 2014 they pushed the message that rhino horn was being used for medicinal purposes. As early as 2012, some intrepid investigators started to make the case that that wasn't what was driving the poaching crisis. There is now a growing consensus that Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) was a red herring all along [1, 2]. I believe they're wrong about biofabricated horn too. If you're interested, you can read my rebuttal to their objections here: https://sosv.com/why-pembient-is-confident-in-synthetic-rhino-horn/ https://sosv.com/why-pembient-is-confident-in-synthetic-rhin... TL;DR: We have Nobel Prize-winning theory (Akerlof, 2001) underlying our proposed intervention. [1] https://twitter.com/savetherhino/status/798885174520016896 https://twitter.com/savetherhino/status/798885174520016896 [2] https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-decorative-purposes-china/ https://wildlifejustice.org/cn/overlooked-rhino-horn-demand-...